What is Groundhog Day all about? Teachers remember when Punxsutawney Phil visited Central New York

The whole school participated with gusto. Everybody wore red and white. For about a week everything was Groundhog Day.

Mexico, N.Y. - Twenty years ago when a repairman examined the gaping holes in Barbara Beck Sheldon's dryer hose, he thought she had rats. Big rats.

Sheldon explained to the man that rats hadn't gnawed away at her dryer hose. A very famous groundhog had.

About 30,000 people are expected to journey to the tiny town of Punxsutawney, Pa. Sunday to see Punxsutawney Phil make his annual weather prediction. In 1994, however, Phil journeyed to Central New York.

By chance three teachers at Mexico Middle School in Oswego County were all born in Punxsutawney.

"It's just such a coincidence," said Jeanne McCloskey, who was born in Punxsutawney and taught 6th grade social studies for 25 years before retiring.

"Name a school the size of Mexico that can have three people all on the faculty from Punxsutawney."

Sheldon and Rebecca Kendra Woods were both born and raised in Punxsutawney and taught art at the middle school. Along with McCloskey and the rest of the faculty, they put on a Groundhog Day celebration for years.

Once a year, the Mexico tigers put away their orange and black and donned red and white, the school colors of Punxsutawney High School.

"The whole school participated with gusto. Everybody wore red and white," McCloskey said. "For about a week everything was Groundhog Day."

Woods and Sheldon baked a special groundhog cookie for each student and teacher. As is done in Punxsutawney, they made decorations, threw a party and crowned a Groundhog king and queen. Other teachers joined in, incorporating Groundhog Day into their lesson plans. They even stitched together a two-person groundhog costume; one person was the groundhog and the other was its shadow.

Later on Sheldon went so far as to borrow an idea from her hometown. Instead of the dozens of giant fiberglass groundhogs that dot Punxsutawney, Sheldon's art students painted fiberglass tigers and placed them around Mexico.

And each year Groundhog Day fell on a school day classes quieted for a few moments in the morning to listen to the PA to learn if Phil saw his shadow.

Despite all the enthusiasm from students and teachers, however, something was missing from Mexico's celebration.

Woods had for years described the Groundhog Day festivities in Mexico to Bill Deeley, her cousin in Punxsutawney.

"And I would constantly beg him to bring Phil up here," Woods said.

Deeley was Phil's handler at the time and in a perfect position to sneak the groundhog off on a little road trip to New York. But Deeley - like the other 14 top hat-wearing members of the Groundhog Club's Inner Circle - was a volunteer and the scheduling never quite worked out.

Then in 1993, the Bill Murray classic "Groundhog Day" came out and the popularity of the holiday soared.

The following year Woods managed to coax Deeley - who is now the club's president - into making the 300-mile drive from Punxsutawney.

Sheldon hosted Deeley and Phil at her house. She made sure to send her dogs to stay with someone else so they didn't eat the groundhog. When Deeley let Phil out of his cage Sheldon was amazed to discover that the groundhog was housebroken.

"So he'd get out and run around like a cat," she said.

With the run off the house Phil tore up toilet paper, ate up some potpourri and burrowed his way behind the dryer.

"He was a really good boy, he just had a chewing problem," Sheldon said laughing.

The next day Deeley, dressed in the Inner Circle's signature tuxedo and top hat, brought Phil to the middle school. At an assembly in the school gymnasium he described the legend of Punxsutawney Phill, explained what a groundhog is and answered questions from the students.

Then, at the end of the assembly, Deeley sprung a surprise.

The students formed a line and got the chance to pet Phil. Scores of children stood wide-eyed as they waited their turn to pet the world's most famous groundhog. Already uneasy about having a groundhog in his school, the principal watched on nervously. Phil, however, kept his cool.

Later Phil visited New Haven Elementary School and Deeley took him to each classroom and handed top hats out to the children.

"It was really exciting to bring part of our hometown here," said Woods, who now teaches in Oswego and still shares the tradition of Groundhog Day with her students each year.

"The groundhog meant so much to me," Sheldon said. "And it wasn't even about this little rodent. It's the town. They're just good people."